Thursday, May 26, 2016

Herdsmen Menace: Gov Fayose Confronts The Monster

By Amanze Obi

It is
hardly surprising that the rampage of Fulani herdsmen has continued unabated.
This is in spite of the outrage that trailed the organised massacre that they
unleashed on EnuguState. The itinerant
killers are not yet deterred by anything. When they soaked Enu­guState
with blood, what they got was mere condemnation. No deterrence was placed on
their way. That is why the story of their kill­ings has remained unending. They
have con­tinued to strike elsewhere in the south and the Middle Belt. So far,
Nimbo and Agatu communities in Enugu and Benue states re­spectively have borne the worst brunt of
their attacks.

Regardless
of the wanton destruction of life and property in Agatu and Nimbo, the Federal
Government has not acted in a way that suggests that we have a monster in our
hands. The governments of the affected states did not also respond as
stridently as ex­pected to the emergencies.

But it
is gratifying to note that Governor Ayo Fayose of EkitiState has departed radi­cally from the
complacency that we saw in EnuguState. Just a few days
ago, we were told told that the herdsmen struck in EkitiState,
leaving two people dead. Fayose could not accept this. He was appalled by it.
He did not just condemn the murder in Ekiti, he also talked tough. Then he
followed up the tough talk with concrete action. He has banned cattle grazing
on Ekiti soil. He has told the herdsmen to take their cattle elsewhere. They
are no longer wanted in EkitiState. That is the order.
That is the situation in Ekiti at moment.

In
taking that decision, Fayose was only doing his job. As the chief security
officer of his state, the governor has a responsibility to take necessary steps
to protect life and prop­erty in his domain. He did not have to wait for the
authorities in Abuja
who, obviously, are not interested in the murderous activities of the herdsmen.

I
consider Fayose’s action very appropri­ate. It is the answer to the impunity
and impudence that surround the activities of the herdsmen. It is also
gratifying that the governor’s action is enjoying the blessing of Afenifere. By
so doing, the region, which has come under attack, has stood up to be count­ed.
This is unlike what obtained in EnuguState where neither the
state government nor any Igbo group responded stridently or appropriately to
the ugly development.

In a
harassed and cowed region, such as the south of Nigeria, it can only take a man of
un­common courage, such as Fayose to confront this monster of oppression and
suppression. To demonstrate that somebody somewhere is enjoying the bad
situation, Northern states Governors Forum shocked decent minds with their
response to the Enugu
killings. While blood was still flowing in Nimbo, the governors had the
audacity and temerity to defend the Fulani killers. They berated those, who
condemned the action of the Fulani herdsmen. The governors said they were
unhappy that the Fulani were being vilified. They warned against further
demonisation of the Fulani race. That was impudence walking with a swagger.

The
position of the northern governors on the issue at stake was not only shameful,
it was insensitive. It did not take into consider­ation the fragility of the
Nigerian federation. I had thought that in a country as volatile as ours, people
in positions of authority should be sensitive to issues that have been trying
the soul of the nation. One of them is ethnic cleansing. It has been happening
in this coun­try since the 1960s. The debacle that degen­erated into the
Biafran war was a direct con­sequence of ethnic cleansing. We need not remind
ourselves of the need to move away from this dangerous path. This is one of the
bitter truths that we need to tell ourselves.

Unfortunately,
we live in a pretentious and artificial republic where many bury their heads in
the sand just to give the impression that all is well. We live in a country
where people in high places have refused to paint the true picture of our
situation. What we have instead is ostrichism and being lily-liv­ered. We do
not say it as it is. We prefer to lie to ourselves. Complicity or cowardice on
the part of elders is a great disservice to peace and progress.

By
taking charge of the situation in his state without taking orders or
instructions from Abuja,
Fayose has demonstrated that the issue at stake is beyond politics. You do not
play politics with the life of the people. You do not play politics with
national secu­rity. The activities of Fulani herdsmen border on both. The life
of the people is sacred and must be protected at all cost. That is what Fayose
is trying to do. No one can fault him on this score.

Certainly,
Fayose must have learnt some­thing from the Nimbo incident, which was
shamelessly politicised. When Enugu
was flattened by the herdsmen, the Igbo were lost in action. They were neither
seen nor heard. The vacuum created by the absence of ap­propriate Igbo response
was quickly filled by select governors of the All Progressives Con­gress (APC).
Governor Rochas Okorocha of ImoState was the arrowhead.
He led a del­egation of APC governors on a courtesy call to Enugu Government
House. By so doing, they turned the mourning of the people into a political
gathering. That, effectively, divert­ed the attention of those who were
supposed to urge for an appropriate and workable re­sponse to the Enugu massacre.

Today,
we have consigned the Nimbo inci­dent to the ash heaps of history. We are prob­ably
waiting for its repeat elsewhere in the South. Fayose understands this scenario
too well. That is why he wants to clip their flap­ping wings now that it is not
too late. Leader­ship should be forward-looking. And that is what Fayose is
doing.

For the
Fayose initiative to endure, Ni­gerians must look beyond politics and treat
this national challenge dispassionately. If we move away from the madding
crowd, we will recognise the fact that those who are talking about the “Fulani
National Grazing Reserve” bill do not mean well for Nigeria. The bill seeks to carve
out portions of farmland, be­longing to communities in the 36 states of the federation
for the Fulani to carry out their grazing. This would have been a harmless ex­ercise
if our country were founded on love, trust and respect for one another.

Unfortunately,
Nigeria
rests on oppres­sion, suppression, impunity and conquest mentality. The Fulani
herdsmen for whom we want to make this law have demonstrated that they are out
to conquer their host com­munities. They do not operate in a peaceful
atmosphere. They thrive on chaos. They are, therefore, a security risk wherever
they oper­ate. Already they have the Licence to kill and maim. Carving out
enclaves for them across the country is to prepare and equip them for total
annihilation of the people of their host communities. Those who wish this
country well should reject the grazing bill in its en­tirety. It is a recipe
for anarchy.

*Dr. Amanze Obi,
former Information Commissioner in Imo State, is a columnist with the SUN
newspaper